This Week's Miscellany (03/03/22)

Old English Poetry, Illustration Sneak Peaks, J.K. Rowling

Hello to new subscribers and welcome all to another edition of This Week’s Miscellany. TWM is full of my favorite things from around the web, typically trending literary.

This week my hometown of Tallahassee, FL burst into bloom. Bright green baby leaves are sprouting from every tree. Shocking pink and magenta azalea flowers are around every corner. It’s been years since I’ve been here fort his sudden, beautiful transformation.

I intentionally took the long way home after dropping the kids off at school and drove through some of my favorite old neighborhoods because I knew how many of the “Old Tallahassee” yards featured azaleas in gorgeous colors. As my breath caught in my throat at the beauty of the sight, I suddenly remembered my dream the night before.

I dreamed of my friend who died in a car accident several years ago. In my dream he was whole and I hugged him tight—knowing he was dead and yet somehow I was being granted this strange opportunity. Most of the dream is murky, but I was struck fresh by his loss and remembered this piece I wrote a couple of years ago about our friendship, his impact on me, and losing him.

News from Spark

I’m thrilled that I get to share a sneak peak of some of the illustrations from Spark author, Alexi Sargeant’s forthcoming book!

Alexi Sargeant🌻 @AlexiSargeant

Very pleased to announce that my first children's book, "Saintly Creatures: 14 Tales of Animals and Their Holy Companions," is forthcoming from @WordOnFire's Spark imprint. Here are a few preview images by the wonderful illustrator, Anita Barghigiani.

Editing, choosing and working with the illustrator, and helping bring this book into the world has been one of the great joys of my first year as the editor of Spark! To be notified when this fantastic book releases, sign up for the (free) Spark waitlist.

Reading

The Speaking Tree: Eleanor Parker

By imagining Christ as a warrior and the Cross as his loyal follower, it echoes the relationship found in poems like Beowulf, where the bond between a warrior and his men is invested with the most intense emotions of love and grief. The opening vision of the Cross as a great tree, towering as tall as the heavens and worshiped by all beings in the world, likely draws on the pre-Christian veneration of sacred trees. It presents the Cross as a kind of world-tree, something like Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, whose branches span the universe and connect the realms of heaven and earth..

Ever a fan of what Plough Quarterly is up to, I loved this piece. When I was in Oxford last summer, I briefly met Eleanor Parker at a pub and was completely fangirling.

Learning from Old Literature: A Reflection of “The Ruin”: Dr. Holly Ordway for Word on Fire

The medieval Christian way of viewing the world was as an integrated whole, in which everything had meaning. To the credit side of the modern day, we have gained much knowledge over the last few centuries, and the Church has continued to unfold the meaning of the deposit of faith, giving us a fuller understanding of doctrine. But we have also lost some of the wisdom that our medieval brothers and sisters had; their faith was, at its best, more fully integrated into their lives, and more fully incarnational in its practice, than our own tends to be in the twenty-first century. There is much that we can learn from them. 

I love Holly’s work (and very much enjoyed Tales of Faith from which this excerpt is drawn.)

The End of the English Major: Nathan Heller for The New Yorker

During the past decade, the study of English and history at the collegiate level has fallen by a full third. Humanities enrollment in the United States has declined over all by seventeen per cent, Townsend found. What’s going on?

This is a must read provoking questions about the future of the humanities in higher education and what an education is for. In related news, Marymount announced the elimination of several of their humanities degrees last week.

And have you checked out Joie de Vivre? It’s a new quarterly magazine of art, culture, and letters for South Louisiana which is a region that holds a special place in my heart.

I recently finished:

• Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle

• Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

• After Humanity by Michael Ward

Speaking of Austen, we’ll be reading Emma next for the Year of Jane book club. And once I figure out how to do it I’ll post our live Zoom with Dr.

Joy Clarkson

that I think I successfully recorded. Look out for our Emma reading schedule and details that I'll be sending out soon.

Listening

And I’ve been completely fascinated by The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, a new podcast hosted by Megan Phelps Roper who escaped from the Westboro Baptist cult as a young adult and now studies cultural movements. She wrote Rowling a letter and was invited to her home in Edinburgh to record hours of interviews. Regardless of how you feel about Rowling, the episodes dive into the power of internet subcultures, social media, mob mentality, extremism, and more that is highly thought-provoking.

And that’s all folks! Wishing you all a wonderful Friday and weekend. And a huge thank you to Sharon, Deanna, and Nicole for upgrading to a paid subscription. This is a reader-supported newsletter so if you enjoy getting these emails, pleas consider supporting this Substack by upgrading to a paid subscription with the button below.

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Thanks for reading!

Haley

(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)

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